Features

Brando taught him to act, Sinatra taught him to sing, Monroe 'made him a man' and Escobar wanted him dead. Listen to the extraordinary life story of Gianni Russo. Audio, Gallery

Tenor Jared Holt joins the New Zealand String Quartet for a concert including the première of a song cycle by Janet Jennings.

A new TV series has just launched, it's a mystery, but perhaps not the type we're used to. It involves three circus lions, Rotorua and a missing poodle.  Audio

Keanu Reeves' dog-loving hitman is up against even more assassination in the latest John Wick film. It's undeniably entertaining, but hopefully future installments will give female characters more to do, says Simon Morris. Video, Audio

Check in at midday to find out about the best-selling albums in NZ and around the world this week.

Samoan-New Zealand photographer Edith Amituana'i focuses on her majority-migrant West Auckland community in the new exhibition Double Take. Dominic Godfrey takes a walk through. Audio

For NZ Music Month we're celebrating some of the enduring Kiwi albums that came out in 1994, including ones by Supergroove, Dave Dobbyn, The Mutton Birds, Strawpeople and Richard Nunns and Hirini Melbourne.

Music critic Nick Bollinger has spent thousands of hours listening to hundreds of albums over many years. Here he talks about some of the very best records from Aotearoa.

Two women, two classics, two free downloads. Enjoy the music of Scheherazade and Elvira Madigan courtesy of RNZ Concert.

Enjoy a celebration of The Beatles in A Strange Days Night - songs by the Fab Four performed by an array of local artists live at The Auckland Town Hall.

'Choirs on Fridays' continues this week with the NZ Secondary Students' Choir singing a delightfully mixed programme in Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington.

Steve Hansen's unwavering faith in Sonny Bill Williams being fit for the Rugby World Cup is both admirable and concerning, Hamish Bidwell writes.

In 'The Only Way is Up' bass-baritone Sir Donald McIntyre reflects on his life on the greatest opera stages of the world. Editor Heath Lees and colleague Simon O'Neill talk to Upbeat. Audio

Insight - The partner of a man sexually assaulted while in the army in the 1970s is demanding the attack be investigated. Video, Audio

The Pacific music industry was in full celebration tonight, at the 15^th annual Pacific Music Awards, where Her Majesty Queen Sālote Tupou lll was posthumously honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pacific analysts say a meeting between US President Donald Trump and the Freely Associated States has ignored climate change.

Around 300 people on Papua New Guinea's Duke of York group are without homes after their houses were destroyed in last week's major earthquake.

Two Marshall Islands-registered corporations associated with what has been reported as possibly the "biggest money-laundering scheme in history" had their corporate registrations revoked by the Trust Company of the Marshall Islands this week.

New Zealand scientists are hoping tags on 10 longfin eels will help them pinpoint where in the Pacific Ocean they go to spawn.

The next time you're walking along Queen Street in downtown Auckland, cast your eyes to the town hall.

A Fijian family involved in an international climate case has been told they have no right to go to court to challenge the EU's climate target.

Papua New Guinea's Police Commissioner says the hunt for notorious criminal gang leader Tommy Baker has been scaled down.

Desperate patients are being left in the dark as to when Pharmac will fund medicines. Guyon Espiner asks why the drug-buying agency operates with such secrecy.

After a sold-out Auckland Fringe Festival run, dance crew Fresh Movement will again perform Māui at next month's Pacific Dance Festival. Video, Audio